Still missed!
Sébastien Loeb should not put his name on the Dakar list at the end of next week in Dejddah after he tried his luck for the fifth time in this event this year.
Unless there is an improbable turnaround, the nine-time world champion will have to be content, again, with stage victories to expand his immense track record.
Little consolation booty for the driver who aimed for victory behind the wheel of his Peugeot 3008 DKR prepared by the Prodrive team.
With his friend Elena, the Alsatian pointed Thursday evening at 1:40 behind the leader Stéphane Peterhansel and his Mini after having lived two black days.
a hole.
Loeb and Sainz stopped on Thursday at the start of the stage.
Tenth, he will now have to count on the breakage in front of him to hope to climb on the podium, as in 2019 (3rd) and in 2017 (2nd).
Thursday evening, the champion still had the head of the bad days at the bivouac after a special where he gave up 50 minutes on the best time set by Giniel de Villiers (Toyota).
Like Carlos Sainz, the Frenchman got lost from the first kilometers of the track.
A “gardening” which cost him dear, as it did to Spain, also seeking its way.
The two cars were even seen side by side with the doors open, with the pilots appearing to be exchanging comments about their navigation issues.
A delay that the two ex-WRC giants have never been able to catch up.
“It's a race for co-drivers, no drivers!”
Sebastien loeb
Sébastien Loeb in Thursday's stage between Royand and Al Qaisumah.
"It's a race for co-drivers, no drivers!" Stormed the Alsatian in the bivouac.
“We will continue and we will see, maybe it will happen to others.
There's a lot of lottery in all of that, ”he grumbled again.
Is the Loeb-Elena duo one of the big losers in the new situation concerning the distribution of road books, which is only revealed to the crews on the morning of the stages, twenty minutes before the start?
Possible.
In previous years, crews had rolls of paper that they could dissect the night before.
“On my first Dakar, a driver could make the difference on the tracks because driving was important.
Now, the difference a driver can make is very small compared to what you can lose by looking for way-points, ”regretted the old Citroën icon.
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Frustrated as his car bombed in the Saudi desert, Loeb had had a very bad day on Wednesday when he learned that he had received a five-minute penalty for speeding.
The Alsatian was flashed nearly 80 km / h too fast in a risk area where he had to slow down.
He had pleaded good faith, assuring that the GPS alarm system that he thought was intended to indicate to the crew the obligation to ease off in the area did not work.
"There is no room for incompetence, nor incompetence"
Sebastien loeb
Sébastien Loeb has still not won the Dakar since 2016.
Furious, he wrote a tweet which did not go unnoticed on Wednesday evening, qualifying in particular some of the organizers "incompetent" "I have always done my best to respect this rule (slowing down in certain areas, editor's note) .
On the sole condition that the GPS system, via an alarm, indicates to us when we are entering these “invisible” zones. (…) The alarm did not sound when entering said zone.
And so I couldn't slow down in time.
Despite our explanations but especially despite the confessions of the provider of the GPS system of a concern for its equipment, the jury of commissioners did not want to know anything.
[...] There is no room for incompetence, nor incompetence ”, let loose the ace of rallies.
# Dakar2021pic.twitter.com / rJ7FFf3gmC
- Sébastien Loeb (@SebastienLoeb) January 6, 2021
77 km / h above the authorized speed in an idle zone
In question, the race marshals wanted to respond to the person concerned.
"We were surprised by seeing this message because he did not come to see us, we did not receive any complaint from him" first reacted the president of the college, Javier Soler.
"It went to 107 km / h while it was limited to 30 km / h", added Luis Gomez.
And David Castera, the boss of the event and former co-driver himself, who knows Loeb well, did not wear gloves to explain that it was probably a crew error.
The role of the beep is to let know that a waypoint has just been validated.
Information on slowdowns in the area is present in the roadbook and the tablet.
“He was coming very quickly and he was waiting for a beep.
The problem is, it didn't ring, or he didn't hear it.
And when he realized it, he got on his brakes.
It was too late, ”regretted the inflexible race director.
Loeb, who could not take part in the 2020 edition because he had focused on the Monte-Carlo Rally, may not yet have grasped all the intricacies of rally-raid driving ...
He and Daniel Elena did not file a complaint but still let it be known that the sound signal of the GPS had been, according to them, faulty.
Whatever, these five minutes of penalty no longer weigh very heavily in their total disbursement on the head of the race.
Which made Loeb, philosophy, say Thursday night: “We have always won together, we lose together too.
And when we make mistakes, we take responsibility for them.
7 more steps to shine. ”
Trapped in navigation today in addition to 3 new punctures.
A day "without" which takes us from P7 to P10.
We have always won together, we lose together too And when we make mistakes, we accept them.
7 more steps to shine
# Dakar2021pic.twitter.com / k8JnkoNysv
- Sébastien Loeb (@SebastienLoeb) January 7, 2021
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